Rollovers are a common everyday hazard of our larger vehicles, particularly SUVs, which have a higher center of gravity than your typical car. Almost every day we write about an SUV that has rolled off the road and landed on its roof. Whether in an SUV or a car, we often find that the occupants of the vehicle were not protected by the roof, which crashes in and injures passengers often by causing traumatic brain injuries.
You would think that a roof would be built strong enough to resist caving in, but the only federal standard an automaker must meet is that the roof needs to be a 1.5 times the weight of the vehicle. A Jere Beasley Report story reminds us that this is a standard that was passed in 1971.
Automakers have the option to design stronger roofs, but many only meet the minimum standard which is not strong enough to protect your family members inside a vehicle. Here is how roof strength is tested. A car is put on its roof and the weight equal to 1.5 times the weight of the vehicle is applied. If the roof crushes less than five inches, it passes the standard. If your head had to resist five inches of pressure, it would not pass any standards either. Things are getting better though. In 2009, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration decided to double the roof strength for cars and light trucks. That will be phased in by the 2012 models.
Soon you will have even stronger vehicles to choose from. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety will be adding a new roof rating system on its Web site that is displayed such as strength-to-weight ratio of 2.5, which means that four times the weight is put on the vehicle on its roof before a 5 inch crush occurs. Don’t assume more expensive cars are the ones with the stronger roofs. An inexpensive car can have a strong roof. If you are curious, anything less than a 2.5 strength-to-weight ratio is not a safe vehicle. A 3.25 would be much better.
